Clay, the most wonderful time of the school year!

Everyone's favorite project is clay!  These students did not disappoint, their projects are turning out amazing!  Although we've had to stop working on them since Covid-19 has closed our schools here in NC, but I was able to get everything bisque fired last week so they'll be ready to glaze as soon as we return (hopefully) in May!

Clay projects Fall 2019

Clay is always such a rewarding project!  I love seeing what my students come up with for their clay creations. Nothing beats opening up a glaze fired kiln to see all those bright shiny colors!  6th and 8th grade made coil pots and were allowed to decorate or shape them into whatever they choose, while 7th grade made pinch pots into a closed form that they turned into animals, shapes, and other unique objects.  Some of them included balls of clay on the inside so that they make a beautiful rattle once fired. As much as I wish I could keep them in my display case, the students are so excited to take them home as soon as possible!

First round of glaze firings - 6th grade coil pots!

I had planned to wait until I had more pieces ready to post, but these are so beautiful I had to post a few pics! This project has been a lengthy process, between all of the steps and so many students missing days for the flu that hit our county hard.  Now the weather has turned warm and everything outside is blooming and beautiful, just like these amazing pieces!

I know... those paper sculptures have lived in the display case for a while, but they looked so great with the pottery so I left a few. :)

In case you missed my previous post, the underglazes made our pieces look like this:

 Easter pottery anyone? 

Then we coated with a few coats of clear, which really made my students anxious! The clear gloss glaze has an aqua tint that completely covers their beautiful colors, but fires clear.  I had to reassure them over and over that it would not ruin their colors! 

These houses, along with 7th grade’s gnomes, are in the kiln firing to their beautiful splendor as I type! More pics to come! 

Glazing day!

Glaze is going on our ceramic pieces this week!  The kids are so excited. They've been begging for weeks to glaze their pottery, but I wanted to have everything done and fired first.  We are using underglazes for color, because I have a TON of them in my storage room, and then we will coat everything with clear glaze tomorrow.

I almost wished they stayed these pastel Easter colors!  Ha!

Love this rainbow design! :)